Saturday's Blurbs featuring Books by Frank Talaber #MFRWAuthor #BWLPublishing #Native Americans

The Stillwater’s Run Deep Urban Fantasy Series, Set on Canada’s Wild West Coast

Book One: Raven’s Lament, Released By Books We Love Ltd

What if there really was a native prince trapped inside the Golden Spruce tree on Haida Gwaii and it was cut down. Releasing the prince and the reason he was trapped inside, Raven. What if Raven woke up and looked at the world it is today and didn't like it one bit and tried to change it back to the way it was?

Welcome to reporter Brook's day. So the question is; how do you stop a God from changing the world? Especially when Raven has captured the woman Brook has fallen in love with. You hire a Shaman, who is more whacked than a hockey player's slap shot and nuttier than a squirrel's winter stash. "Yeah, this is going to work, I'll get my lady back and we'll live happily ever after," Brook grinned while banging his head several times after realizing it’s like leading a charge of six drunken squirrels trying to storm the beaches of D-Day.

Endorsements

After being stranded twenty kilometers from the nearest road at the tip of Rose Spit, Haida Gwaii, and having to push Frank's spanking new SUV a few kilometers along the beach before the tide came in and we ran out of booze, my first reaction on being asked to write a back cover blurb was, “over my dead body." Some people will do anything to get an endorsement.

Susan Musgrave

Damn, Frank -- this writing is as tactile as a 1955 T-Bird. Very nice descriptions, good dialogue, a thinking man's book but one that can be read entirely for pleasure. Good work.

Michael Arkin/ Judicial Indiscretion

Teaser videos for Raven’s Lament

https://www.facebook.com/FrankTalaber/videos/2188766711398229/

https://www.facebook.com/FrankTalaber/videos/1503706939697200/

Book Two: Vancouver’s Spirits, Released by Books We Love Ltd.

Vancouver’s mayor is found brutally slain in Stanley Park by Pauline Johnson's monument. His family is missing.

With no clues to either, an enigmatic old native, claiming to be a shaman, shows up swearing he knows the answers. Plays tag-your-it and disappears without a trace.

After a night of drunkeness a reporter wakes up in a part of town he’s never visited and begins investigating why he's having strange nightmares of a life not his.

Which begs him to question the validity of the urban myth, when you get drunk enough you don't remember anything you did? Could it be possible there's a place where spirits might take over to have a little fun on their own?

A slain Devils Spawn Biker returns from the dead seeking vengeance and he ain’t happy.

An ancient witch/succubus has been set free from her imprisonment and will stop at nothing to return to our realm. She never was happy.

The streets of Vancouver threaten to explode in gang war.

And for cavalry to the rescue, a boatload of ancient gods arrives. Only they've been out of action for over two hundred years and haven't quite grasped the concept of modern civilization.

So begins Carol Ainsworth’s first day on the job as a detective.

Endorsements

Paranormal fantasy, mystery thriller rolled into one. Vancouver’s Spirits is a well-crafted story that builds suspense through flowing narrative, life-like characters, and believable dialogue. If you're a fan of any of the above mentioned genres, or if you're just looking for a page turner to get lost in, Vancouver’s Spirits will not disappoint.

Cris Pasqueralle

 I loved “Vancouver’s Spirits” powerful imagery. It's beautifully written and very descriptive. I can picture all of it. Another thing I noticed was the "feel" of the story. It definitely "feels" like a crime novel. I definitely liked how you began the story and then rewinded time. It makes me anxious to find out what happens between now and then! Your writing is elegant yet it's not pretentious. The alliteration is great, too! 

 Ryan Holden HOMOCIDAL

Video for Vancouver’s Spirits

https://www.facebook.com/FrankTalaber/videos/1685415398193019/

Book Three: Thunderbird’s Wake, Released by Books We Love Ltd.

                               

Agatha Christie, roll over in your grave, new sleuths on the prowl.  Haida shaman Charlie Stillwaters convinces Carol Ainsworth, a Vancouver detective, to join him as he breaks his way into a high security prison. The duo are determined to find out who killed the previous native elder before all lightning and thunder breaks loose. They encounter deranged inmates, mystical beings, ancient serpents, wood sprites and someone who should have been dead long ago.

Not your usual crime/mystery!

Not your usual criminal investigators!

You thought Jack Nicholson was mad in The Shining…

Wait until you meet Charlie Stillwaters in the Sweat lodge.

Endorsements

Just when I was beginning to wonder where the next great Canadian story teller would emerge from, Frank Talaber has written a modern crime mystery with a twist. In “Thunderbird’s Wake” Talaber weaves the richness of Canada’s west coast aboriginal spirituality into the science of modern forensics. CSI comes to Haida Gwaii as the shaman and the detective conduct an investigation that will take them and the reader on a journey to a place where murder, redemption and ancient mysticism intersect.

Michael G de Jong, QC Minister of Finance, Government House Leader, Province of BC.

There are many aspects true to First Nation’s beliefs. For example the transformation of animals and anomalies within our realm. Frank Talaber’s writing is clear and concise, leaving no grey areas. But his true talent as a writer is not only a sense of time, history and capturing First Nation’s humor, but going from the real to the surreal and the supernatural. A gift he plies very well.

Tom Patterson, Nuu-Cha-Nulth Artist and Master Carver

Video for Thunderbird’s Wake

https://www.facebook.com/FrankTalaber/videos/1831807716887119/

Friday's Guest Frank Talaber Talking about Heroes, Heroines and Villains #MFRWAuthor #BWLPublishing #Villains #Heroes #Heroines

. Do you write a single genre or do your fingers flow over the keys creating tales in many forms?

Does your reading choices reflect your writing choices?

Are there genres you wouldn’t attempt?

I write in many genres. Currently I have a Paranormal/Urban Fantasy novel just about ready to publish, and have two Science Fiction novels, a comedy novel, and a spiritual novel all on the go. So to answer the question; wherever my mind wanders. I've also written romance and erotica in the past. Any I wouldn't attempt?  Western I suppose; can't see myself writing much about dudes (or, to be politically correct, people) on horses. LOL.

2-4. Heroes, or Heroines. Which are your favorite to write? How do you find them? Do pictures, real life or plain imagination create the man you want every reader to love? Do they come before the plot or after you have the idea for the story?

I’ve created some greatly bizarre heroes in the past. Charlie Stillwaters for one. But I think I rather enjoy heroines. My current heroine is a detective, Carol Ainsworth. I like the fact that you have a character that is, or can be, as tough as a guy, yet can be soft, seductive and feminine as well. Makes for a more complex person in my mind. (Which, to be honest, to me females are more complex as in the ‘Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus’ book.) My heroes and heroines are usually created before a novel is written, or at least right away after a plot is devised. I only seek pictures if there’s a book cover needed. In my mind I already see them as complete images.

5. Villains or villainesses or an antagonist, since they don’t always have to be the bad guy or girl. They can be a person opposed to the hero’s or heroine’s obtaining their goal. How do you choose one? How do you make them human?

While villains are usually bad-ass people, I like to find some part of them that is humanly kind, or at least have a very good reason why they became the way they are in their lives. Or, as it is often said, there’s a story in everyone. One that’s made them the way they are.

6. What is your latest release? Who is the hero, heroine and or the villain?

My newest book, about to be released in the next month or two, is the first in a new series based around my detective entitled “The Ainsworth Chronicles”. The first of this is called The Joining. It opens in Victoria at the Fairmont Empress Hotel. Carol Ainsworth has gone undercover due to two groups of Mafia coming in for a wedding, but the Canadian and American authorities have discovered they are there for much more than that. They intend starting a new West Coast drug operation, and as they are also Satanists, they will perform a grisly ceremony to have Satan bless this venture.

However in the past there was a curse established between the mob and the First Nations peoples of Victoria. A curse that now is riling up the ghosts of Victoria and as there are a lot of ghosts in Victoria (the most in all of North America) this is not going to be plain sailing for Carol. Quickly enters a hunky American FBI agent, who wants more than to check Carol’s credentials, and a hunkier Mafioso. Carol finds herself falling for the mobster. One of the mafia is found hanged in his hotel room, by, for all intents and purposes, what appears to be a ghost.

Another guest appears, mysteriously bearing a crystal skull. A crazy old psychic, Agnes Van Lunt, who says she’s there to help Carol investigate the ghosts, but is really there to solve an old abduction. It is then found that there is a vortex in Victoria that someone is using to transport back and forth through time. Add to this a First Nations ghost who is blending with the dead spirits of the souls living in Victoria’s sewers and The Joining threatens to escalate into an unholy merging of supernatural and urban dwellers that threaten to blow the lid off Victoria’s sedate and proper English image.

 A video made for The Joining

https://www.facebook.com/FrankTalaber/videos/1613967575337802/

7. What are you working on now?

Two projects, one is Book Two of the Ainsworth Chronicles, tentatively entitled ‘Who The Hell Is Agnes?’ Agnes has, for reasons we discover later, brought forward from the past Francis Rattenbury. Yes, the same fellow that built the Empress Hotel and British Columbia’s parliament buildings.

I’m also in the middle of rewriting, a spiritual/science fiction novel, at the moment called ‘The Ascension, Who Knew Buddha Had Such a Twisted Sense Of Humor?’ This revolves around the premise that the human race is isolated from the rest of the universe until we are ready to ascend into their level of being. One man, Roger Harrison, has to go through an awakening, which includes understanding and conquering his seven chakras. He is aided by an angel (that he has seen before in his life many times) that is stranded on Earth and needs his help as much as he needs her’s. The novel opens with Roger discovering that he has a chunk of alien metal in him, only to find that his close friends have as well. So begins Roger’s journey into his past life regressions and trying to save humanity from those that don’t want us to ascend.

8. How can people find you?

Where to buy my novels? Ebooks and Paperback.https://www.amazon.com/Frank-Talaber/e/B00UC407R0

Or Ebooks through Smashwords.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/29855

Or catch me at my Facebook authors page and sign up for my newsletter (ah, come on you know you really want to.)

https://www.facebook.com/franktalaberpublishedauthor/

Saturday's Blurbs - Books by Frank Talaber #MFRWauthor #Mystery #Spirits and ghosts

The Stillwater’s Run Deep Urban Fantasy Series, Set on Canada’s Wild West Coast


Book One: Raven’s Lament, Released By Books We Love Ltd

What if there really was a native prince trapped inside the Golden Spruce tree on Haida Gwaii and it was cut down. Releasing the prince and the reason he was trapped inside, Raven. What if Raven woke up and looked at the world it is today and didn't like it one bit and tried to change it back to the way it was? 
Welcome to reporter Brook's day. So the question is; how do you stop a God from changing the world? Especially when Raven has captured the woman Brook has fallen in love with. You hire a Shaman, who is more whacked than a hockey player's slap shot and nuttier than a squirrel's winter stash. "Yeah, this is going to work, I'll get my lady back and we'll live happily ever after," Brook grinned while banging his head several times after realizing it’s like leading a charge of six drunken squirrels trying to storm the beaches of D-Day.




After being stranded twenty kilometers from the nearest road at the tip of Rose Spit, Haida Gwaii, and having to push Frank's spanking new SUV a few kilometers along the beach before the tide came in and we ran out of booze, my first reaction on being asked to write a back cover blurb was, “over my dead body." Some people will do anything to get an endorsement.

Susan Musgrave



Damn Frank -- this writing is as tactile as a 1955 T-Bird. Very nice descriptions, good dialogue, a thinking man's book but one that can be read entirely for pleasure. Good work.

Michael Arkin/ Judicial Indiscretion







Book Two: Vancouver’s Spirits, Released by Books We Love Ltd.

Vancouver’s mayor is found brutally slain in Stanley Park by Pauline Johnson's monument. His family is missing.
With no clues to either, an enigmatic old native, claiming to be a shaman, shows up swearing he knows the answers. Plays tag-your-it and disappears without a trace.
After a night of drunkenness a reporter wakes up in a part of town he’s never visited and begins investigating why he's having strange nightmares of a life not his.
Which begs him to question the validity of the urban myth, when you get drunk enough you don't remember anything you did? Could it be possible there's a place where spirits might take over to have a little fun on their own?
A slain Devils Spawn Biker returns from the dead seeking vengeance and he ain’t happy.
An ancient witch/succubus has been set free from her imprisonment and will stop at nothing to return to our realm. She never was happy.
The streets of Vancouver threaten to explode in gang war.
And for cavalry to the rescue, a boatload of ancient gods arrives. Only they've been out of action for over two hundred years and haven't quite grasped the concept of modern civilization.
So begins Carol Ainsworth’s first day on the job as a detective.

Endorsements

Paranormal fantasy, mystery thriller rolled into one. Vancouver’s Spirits is a well-crafted story that builds suspense through flowing narrative, life-like characters, and believable dialogue. If you're a fan of any of the above mentioned genres, or if you're just looking for a page turner to get lost in, Vancouver’s Spirits will not disappoint.
Cris Pasqueralle
I loved “Vancouver’s Spirits” powerful imagery. It's beautifully written and very descriptive. I can picture all of it. Another thing I noticed was the "feel" of the story. It definitely "feels" like a crime novel. I definitely liked how you began the story and then rewinded time. It makes me anxious to find out what happens between now and then! Your writing is elegant yet it's not pretentious. The alliteration is great, too! 
Ryan Holden HOMOCIDAL





Book Three: Thunderbird’s Wake, Released by Books We Love Ltd.


Agatha Christie, roll over in your grave, new sleuths on the prowl. Haida shaman Charlie Stillwaters convinces Carol Ainsworth, a Vancouver detective, to join him as he breaks his way into a high security prison. The duo are determined to find out who killed the previous native elder before all lightning and thunder breaks loose. They encounter deranged inmates, mystical beings, ancient serpents, wood sprites and someone who should have been dead long ago.
Not your usual crime/mystery!
Not your usual criminal investigators!
You thought Jack Nicholson was mad in The Shining…
Wait until you meet Charlie Stillwaters in the Sweat lodge.


Endorsements

Just when I was beginning to wonder where the next great Canadian story teller would emerge from, Frank Talaber has written a modern crime mystery with a twist. In “Thunderbird’s Wake” Talaber weaves the richness of Canada’s west coast aboriginal spirituality into the science of modern forensics. CSI comes to Haida Gwaii as the shaman and the detective conduct an investigation that will take them and the reader on a journey to a place where murder, redemption and ancient mysticism intersect.

Michael G de Jong, QC Minister of Finance, Government House Leader, Province of BC.



There are many aspects true to First Nation’s beliefs. For example the transformation of animals and anomalies within our realm. Frank Talaber’s writing is clear and concise, leaving no grey areas. But his true talent as a writer is not only a sense of time, history and capturing First Nation’s humor, but going from the real to the surreal and the supernatural. A gift he plies very well.

Tom Patterson, Nuu-Cha-Nulth Artist and Master Carver 

Where to buy my novels? Ebooks and Paperback.
https://www.amazon.com/Frank-Talaber/e/B00UC407R0
Or Ebooks through Smashwords.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/29855

Or catch me at my Facebook authors page and sign up for my newsletter (ah, come on you know you really want to.)

https://www.facebook.com/franktalaberpublishedauthor/

Friday's Guest - Frank Talaber answers questions #MFRWauthor #Plot #characters

1. Are you a panster or a plotter or perhaps a bit of both?

I’m definitely a panster. I’ll just sit down and start pounding out scene after scene as the book unfolds in my head. Most often in no particular order, with the end scene often one of the first I write. Although once I reach a certain point then I’ll start organizing the plot. Which then usually leaves me with more ideas on scenes to write. Also with the end scene written I usually end up writing backwards towards the beginning. I suppose you could call me a reverse-plotter/panster. Hey, did I just invent something new here?


2. Which comes first - characters or plot for you?

Usually plot. While some of my characters tend to get into and raise a lot of trouble that has to be dealt with, the plot will drive the book. I usually will think up a plot idea and ask my usual question, what if? Then coffee kicks in, after I feed the cats. Trust me, no writing is done in the morning unless the cats are fed first. But once I get an idea on what to write, then the nagging question, what if, begins to stalk me. I’ll answer more of that in the next question.

3. What are you working on now? Is this a book in a current series or something totally new?

A totally new series entitled; The Ainsworth Chronicles. Book One: The Joining. 
Carol Ainsworth is an undercover police officer acting as a day manager at the Fairmont Empress Hotel. Two mafia mob families have gone there to supposedly have a wedding and join their families. Only the truth is they’ve gone there to start up a new division of the mobs business, one that would concentrate on importing illegal goods and drugs from the Far East using Victoria as its hub. Victoria just happens to be the most haunted city in all of Canada, with a lot of ghosts and hauntings. For some reason the ghosts are being disturbed and agitated by what is happening, as Carol soon discovers. Carol worked in a previous series with a Haida Shaman and knows there are a lot of woo-woo things we don’t understand and/or believe in. Because of this, she soon learns that she’s sensitive to ghosts and ghostly disturbances.
Carol runs into Jake Holden an American FBI agent, also investigating the case. They both have the hots for each other. Then enters handsome Luigi Cavallio one of the mafia head men, who really has the hots for Carol. 
Toss in Rebecca, a demented dominatrix, who’s been jilted by Jake and still wants him and elderly Agnes who is known as Ms. Teak from her stage career. She can read minds, as Carol soon finds out and talks intimately with a crystal skull named Cider. High Tea at the Empress Hotel just evolved from high class and social decorum to crazy on the edge of your seat thrills.

4. Do you have some kind of object or place that figures in most of your books? I use gems a lot, hospitals and caves.
Well, if ghosts and spirits count then yes. But for the most part I use the west coast of Canada, which is rich in native lore and legends.

5. Do you write everyday or just when the spirit hits?
Usually more when the spirit hits, if I’m heavy into a novel I’m working on, then usually everyday. But as my day job is being a service manager for a very busy auto shop, during the week my mind is usually very tired at the end of the day. I usually spend half an hour to an hour in the wee hours of the morning writing and on weekends.

Saturday's Blurbs featuring Books by Frank Talaber #MFRWauthor #Paranormal #Mysteryromance

Shuttered Seduction (from Books We Love Ltd)

Some pray to find a love that tears your heart from the boughs of your sinews. THE ONE enters Julia-Rae's life and sets her world into turmoil. Only what if that person has designs on your business and claiming your career? Does love tear asunder all that each holds dear? 

Well, she did twap him in the rear with her bandanna. but it was still love at first sting, er sight.

Or will the evil of money prevail on the winds of seduction?

Shaman's Lure (from MuseItup Publishing)

When all hell's broken apart with one of its angels. The dead claim life from the living. Your one clue to solving the year's most gruesome murder has vanished. A family is missing, presumed dead and the spirits wait to take over from alcohol's haze. There's always tomorrow. But ask Carol, because that's when the shit hits the fan and there's no turning back to yesterday.

Raven's Lament (from Books We Love LTD)

 Environmental destruction unleashed. Spirits cut free to walk this world. Gods awaken and a reporter's dream becomes his worst nightmare as he finds the love of his life. Only to have it torn away. So, to the rescue comes a mad man, who makes our hero question everything he's ever learned in this lifetime. Everything except the woman that's stirred his heart like no other. He's got believe in himself and fight to claim her back.

 Here's one for my book to be out this spring.

Thunderbird's Wake (from Books We Love LTD)

 A penitentiary is a dangerous place and into the world of the criminal enters a saint. Well, bearing rattles and guardian beasts, the native born find him a saint. To the rest he's more nuts than a squirrels winter stash. There's a god asleep, awakening. Humans that seek justice and a sprite that needs justice from humanity.

So what makes you want to break into one?

You can ask Charlie, but he ain't telling. And if he did you wouldn't believe it in a dozen lifetimes.

 Come enter, the madness this spring

Friday's Interview featuring Frank Talaber #MFRWauthor

Day 1 

We all know there are six elements of fiction. Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. I believe the first five lead to the sixth which for me is plot. What's your take on this?

 Agreed. Once I've figured out the first five, then the plot follows. I usually have a basic plot in my head. Murder, mystery etc. But the characters or the timeframe or location begin to play away with the rest as I answer the first five.

1.      How do you create your characters? Do you have a specific method?

 No. That's the weird part. I might see someone or something on TV and ask myself what if? or I look at someone and ask the same thing. What if? So I guess I'm wrong. My method is asking what if? the who, what, why, when, how, take over from there.

2. Do your characters come before the plot?

Often yes. I might have a basic idea for a plot, but the characters soon form and take over from there. Usually changing the plot in unexpected ways.

3. Do you know how the story will end before you begin? In a general way or a specific one?

   I sometimes write the final scene first or very early on, and build towards it. But the characters dictate the middle ground.

4. Do you choose settings you know or do you have books of settings and plans of houses sitting around?

I usually pick a setting and then research the area and history etc. The research, I find, helps build the story and scenes. For Example I'm working on a murder crime novel set in Victoria. In the research I found out it has a reputation for one of the most haunted cities in Canada. So I've added a ghost and put a character that is visiting Victoria for the hauntings.

5. Where do you do your research? On line or from books?

 I used to mainly go from books. But a lot is now done online. Everything from pictures to location information can be found very quickly.

6. Are you a draft writer or do you revise as you go along and why? Do you sketch out your plot or do you let the characters develop the route to the end?

A draft writer, sorry I don't struggle behind a team of horses or cows. HA! But I've a wicked, twisted sense of humour. No, I usually believe in writing flow and just pound out the story as it hits me or as the characters bribe me. So, beer and red wine is very effective. Oh, and comic books. They will get you everywhere with me. Actually I read thousands of comic books in my younger days. The action, visuals still play in my head. that's usually what I see, scenes like in a comic book. Boom, Boom, Boom. One step, one scene at a time, without the cheesy ads.

 7. Where can we find you on the net?

https://www.amazon.com/Frank-Talaber/e/B00UC407R0

http://twosoulmates.wix.com/frankt-author-blog

http://www.bookswelove.net/authors/talaber-frank/

https://www.facebook.com/Frank-Talaber-805296946204873/

Twitter: @FrankTalaber

Saturday's Blurbs features Books by Frank Talaber #MFRWauthor

Raven’s Lament

Ever meet anyone who took you to the edge of everything you ever thought possible, or ever knew?
Meet Canada's West Coast version of Milligans, Peaceful Warrior.
Charlie Stillwaters. He'll not only take you to that edge. He'll smile as he kicks you screaming off it.
Based on a true story and native oral legends.

http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Talaber/e/B00UC407R0

Shaman’s Lure

Vancouver real X-Files case. Witch freed from Stanley Park. Mayor Dead. Hell's angels mad as he comes back from the dead. Yup, you heard me right on that one. It's all tied in with the adage that when you get really drunk and everyone tells you about what you did, but don't remember. Well, there's a bar in Stanley Park that when you've had too much to drink, spirits take over your body until you sober up. Hey, I hear they have half price shooters on Tuesdays. 

http://www.amazon.com/Shamans-Lure-Frank-Talab…/…/B00SU836AK

Shuttered Seduction

Your usual romance, Man meets woman they fall in love. Go bungee-jumping, meet grizzly bear. Oh did I mention he wants to buy her business out from under her? Hmm, maybe not your usual romance then. And I ain't even going to give you a clue about the cross-dressing party.

Friday - Frank Talaber talking about Writing and genres #MFRWauthor

1.  What's your genre or do you write in more than one?

Urban fantasy and science fiction. But yes, I do write in many. I’ve been told to specialize, but as a writer I enjoy the challenge of writing in many genres. Besides, I get bored easily and enjoy the challenge of different genres. I’ve written in erotica, in romance, in comedy, in spiritual and done many short stories as well.

2. Did you choose your genre or did it choose you?

I always ask ‘what if’ as a writer. I’d written a romance, which is now published under Shuttered Seduction by Books We Love Ltd. But one day after reading an article about the cutting down of the Golden Spruce tree on Haida Gwaii. Which was done by a white man in protest of logging. The native oral legend is that a prince was trapped inside and hence the leaves have turned gold in sorrow. I remember staring at a totem in the museum and asked myself, what if a prince was trapped inside? After that and doing a lot of research on native legends and stories I began to write and think along the lines of urban fantasy stories. I always lived and believed in the fantastic, must be the gypsy blood in my veins.

3.  Is there any genre you'd like to try?  Or is there one you wouldn't?

I’d like to try young adult, the hard part would be trying to tell a story without getting literal or in other words not using big words or terms. I like using unique words on occasion.

4.  What fiction do you read for pleasure?

Sword and sorcery, I love the old Robert E. Howard novels. Fantasy and science fiction, also enjoy reading some romance novels as well.

5.  Tell me a bit about yourself and how long you've been writing,

Well I’m a licensed automotive technician and run a nine bay auto repair shop. I read and collected a lot of comic books as a youngster. Many had some wild crazy stories, I think that always stuck in my head and began me asking, ‘what if.’ I really began writing back in high school, took a creative writing course and always remember on the first day  flipping through the course material and raising my hand and saying, ‘but it’s blank.’ The instructor replied with ‘yes, it’s your job to fill it.’ The idea was to establish writing flow and at first it was murder putting down one paragraph. But by the end of it, I was pounding out several pages and often took it home to pound out even more. One of the first things I ever wrote publicly was a letter to a comic book (Legion of Super-Heroes) and they published it. I was hooked then and there as a writer.

6.  Which of your characters is your favorite?

Charlie Stillwaters, why see below, a paragraph I had him write for a blog entry.

I’m Charlie Stillwaters, Haida shaman or Ska-ga as we call ourselves, officially Union member three, local one. Yes, not a big union, but then how many shamans do you know personally.
Hello ladies, gentlemen, tree spirits, annoying ravens, goblins, hebegebes, spectral entities, witches and any other assorted bizarre beings that want to hear about me. By the way a couple of these I just threw in since it is getting near All Hallows Eve and thought it might make good exposure. Most of these beings are what I’ve spent my life fighting, playing poker with (by the way ever play spectral poker, you are allowed to read the others minds in order to see their cards, brilliant. Well until you play a drunk chipmunk and all he could focus on is the ace. Boy did I lose a lot of hazelnuts that night. PS. A good hint, if you play a bear, make sure all the salmon are expired, otherwise you throw them on the table to call someone’s bluff and they just flop off the table, making a mess, spilling all the fermented apple juice and usually getting the bear quite upset. Not a good thing.) I try to stick to Tiddly Winks with bears. Much safer. They Tiddly and I wink.

7.  Are there villains in your books and how were they created?

There are. My answer is simple for every hero or heroine, there’s a villain, the old laws of balance and yin and yang. The greater the hero, the greater the villain. And yes, Charlie has battled some pretty great villains.

8.  What are you working on now?

The third in a series, titled Thunderbird’s Wake. A pre-release blurb is below.

Agatha Christie, roll over in your grave, new sleuths on the prowl.  Haida shaman Charlie Stillwaters convinces Carol Ainsworth, a Vancouver detective, to join him as he breaks his way into a high security prison. The duo are determined to find out who killed the previous native elder before all lightning and thunder breaks loose, as they encounter deranged inmates, mystical beings, ancient serpents, wood sprites and someone who should have been dead long ago.

Not your usual crime/mystery!

Not your usual criminal investigators!

You thought Jack Nicholson was mad in The Shining…

Wait until you meet Charlie Stillwaters in the Sweatlodge.

9.  What's your latest release and how did the idea arrive?

My last release is a Romance Novel, entitled, ‘Shuttered Seduction.’

Don’t remember where I got the idea, but I think it all started with the notion of: what if a man and woman were to fall in love, only he was out originally to seduce her and steal her company out from under her feet.

Saturday's Blurbs - Books by Frank Talaber #MFRWauthor #paranormal #romance

Raven's Lament

What if there really was a native prince trapped inside the Golden Spruce tree on Haida Gwaii and it was cut down. Releasing the prince and the reason he was trapped inside, Raven. What if Raven woke up and looked at the world it is today and didn't like it one bit and tried to change it back to the way it was? Welcome to reporter Brook's day. So how do you stop a God from changing the world? You hire a Shaman, who is just a bit nuttier than most fruitcake salads. Oh, this is beginning to sound like trouble, big time trouble. Especially when Raven has captured the woman Brook has fallen in love with.

Available at Indigo and Chapter's in paperback

Ebook at Amazon and Books We Love

 Raven's Lament (By Books We Love Publishers)  http://www.bookswelove.net/authors/talaber-frank/

http://amazon.com/author/franktalaber

Shaman's Lure

Vancouver's mayor is found brutally slain in Stanley Park beside the memorial to Pauline Johnson. His family is missing and no clues to the disappearance. Carol's first big case as a police detective. In the middle of the night a shaman show's up, spouting that the clues are there, you just have to open your eyes and your viewpoint and you can see them. Unfortunately he also vanishes. Carol has to now to prove he exists, along with finding the family before the city erupts in gang violence. Why you ask?

Just so happens that there's a bar in Stanley Park where if you get drunk enough, spirits take over your body and use it for whatever they want until you sober up. One is a Hell's Angel back for revenge, and another is a native witchy succubus, desperate to come back to life.

Carol is beginning to think wrestling alligators and skydiving with your hands tied behind your back is suddenly a nice cushy career instead.

Available Ebook only at this point through

https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/museitup/fantasy/urban-fantasy/shamans-lure-detail 

http://amazon.com/author/franktalaber

Shuttered Seduction

What happens when the enemy falls in love with you? And you with them?

Heck, you take them bungee jumping, hiking in the Rockies, and cross dressing, of course.

So can the fire cracker redhead take down the bad boy? Will his dark past destroy them or worse does her quick temper push him away like every other man that's entered her life?

 http://www.bookswelove.net/authors/talaber-frank/

http://amazon.com/author/franktalaber

 Frank Talaber

Writer by soul. Karma the seed. Words born within.

Paper the medium. Pen the muse. Novels the fire.